A friend of mine who'd lived in Brighton all her life said that she felt it was the transient nature of much of the population that led to this sort of crap... people coming and going, the student population, the holidaymakers, the stag and hen weekenders, the daytrippers... that a resentment had grown and a lot of locals didn't want their city to be seen as some playground for 'others' who dip in and dip out at will particularly as they themselves are often far removed from the perceived glamour of the place (I think she went on to laud Fatboy Slim for papering over this schism, bringing the two halves of the perceived divide together... I think she was on some drugs)

Brighton's not alone in this and I imagine it occurs in a lot of seaside and destination towns and cities

I was very aware of homophobic and racist incidents from casual in passing remarks to actual stark hate crimes but Brighton doesn't exist in isolation- look what happened in Hastings with that young Arab student this week- and certainly, fortunately it wasn't a daily or even weekly occurence... I think the longer I lived there the more aware I became of all this

But, having said all that, one of the things I liked about Brighton was the 'this is me, take me or leave me' attitude of a lot of it's populace, it was an often unapologetic and unashamed, almost brazen attitude- which was a blooming eyeopener after living in Hertfordshire and Essex all my life where conformity is very much king

I miss Brighton, ultimately what drove me away though were the absolutely shitty and venal letting agents- surely the biggest bunch of shits on the South Coast

I personally think Brighton has massively improved due to the migration of people from other parts of the country/world, as someone said earlier Brighton is a fairly left leaning city with touches of right wingness, well when i was growing up it was in the main only right wing, it was a Tory stronghold for a number of years, most peeps were happy down here when Thatcher was in power put it that way.

During the early 9ts we had a lot of migration into the then town, it improved the old place beyond comprehension imo, became more cosmopolitan, a real lovely mix of people, there were some real intersting small businesses, great retro/second hand shops, good pubs, good clubs etc.

Unfortunately like a lot of things Brighton became trendy, a victim of it's own success, people started to move down from London etc because they thought it was trendy, the council latched onto this in-vogueness & started to put shop rents up etc, we moved from a town to a city (with all the problems that brings), house prices went through the roof.

During the last 2/3 years for me it's been hanging by a thread, there's lots of empty shops as people can't afford to rent them due to high Landlord fees, the job market is starting to crumble due to no manufacturing base (most jobs are bars, restaurants etc), the first to go during a recession.

One thing i have found over the years though is Brighton goes round in circles, good then bad then good again, at the moment it's bad but i'm fairly confident things will improve & get back on track, there's enough good/creative dreamers down here to make the old place spring in to life again!

Am loving Brighton so far, apart from the unemployment. The two main record shops so far located (Borderline, Resident) cover a fair amount of needs, although a disappointingly small amount of vinyl at Resident, but pretty good overall. Really enjoyed the Prince Albert, looking forward to seeing more stuff there. Some great people too.

craigboney wrote:Am loving Brighton so far, apart from the unemployment. The two main record shops so far located (Borderline, Resident) cover a fair amount of needs, although a disappointingly small amount of vinyl at Resident, but pretty good overall. Really enjoyed the Prince Albert, looking forward to seeing more stuff there. Some great people too.

Check out 'Across the tracks' in Sydney Street & 'Wax Factor' in Trafalgar Street, both sell mainly vinyl from the 5ts to now.

craigboney wrote:Am loving Brighton so far, apart from the unemployment. The two main record shops so far located (Borderline, Resident) cover a fair amount of needs, although a disappointingly small amount of vinyl at Resident, but pretty good overall. Really enjoyed the Prince Albert, looking forward to seeing more stuff there. Some great people too.

I used to buy a lot of vinyl from the guy who runs Edgeworld when he came to the Southampton record fair so it's worth going there! Glad you're enjoying Brighton then.

craigboney wrote:Am loving Brighton so far, apart from the unemployment. The two main record shops so far located (Borderline, Resident) cover a fair amount of needs, although a disappointingly small amount of vinyl at Resident, but pretty good overall. Really enjoyed the Prince Albert, looking forward to seeing more stuff there. Some great people too.

Check out 'Across the tracks' in Sydney Street & 'Wax Factor' in Trafalgar Street, both sell mainly vinyl from the 5ts to now.

Simon

I wandered past Wax Factor on the way to the Freebutt last night and did a little wow, will have to check that out. Ta!

13strongmonsters wrote:Yeah, if you're looking for vinyl, craigboney, check out Edgeworld - it's on the same street as Resident, on the opposite side, kind of opposite "Get Cutie".

You have to go into another shop and up some stairs to get there - loads of great vinyl.

I clocked that the other day, wandering with my head up for once, will head in when I've got work I think, money is running frighteningly low. Although I'm waiting on a phone call about a temp job for the one place I've been told to avoid like the plague..

Edgeworld is one of White Hotel's (from Planbmag - I'm assuming you're the same Boney!) favourite record shops.

Also, craigboney - the woman and I spent a good portion of time and money at the Brighton and Hove Food Festival on New Road (next to Pavilion Gardens, near the new library) today. It's on tomorrow to - even if you're skint, you can go down and drool and try all the free samples.

TENDER TRAPhttp://www.myspace.com/tendertrap
An extremely rare live appearance from a band featuring a cast of bona fide indiepop legends. Formed from the ashes of Marine Research, who formed from the ashes of Heavenly, who formed from the ashes of Talulah Gosh, Tender Trap are coming to town to promote their forthcoming third album "Dansette, Dansette" (on FortunaPOP!)

Shortly after his Grandfathers funeral Jimmy discovered a ukulele in the attic and a small handwritten book of his grandfathers poetry....He met Eleanor the day after his best friends wedding, at a Libertines gig. They booked 3 gigs and guided by the unflinching eye of their guru and mentor Duke Marmapants, decided to form the greatest band of all time. He wrote some songs about shagging. She wrote some songs influenced by words she had seen written on toilet walls. They are repeatedly described as "Genius" and once as "Dostoevsky singing Lonnie Donnegan" Both descriptions are correct."

DISCLAIMER: This story is TRUE & has nothing to do with the work of Joseph Campbell or their interpritation by George Lucas

An A.Ma.Zing band who evoke the ramshackle riotous spirit of JAMC / early MBV.

According to the band The Mai 68s sound like:-
Nothing on earth.... What do you mean this is an official statement?.... oh ok then. Its the sound of dinosaur jr if fronted by ulrike meinhof, the ramones if they sniffed c86 comps rather than glue, and the band phil spector would have loved if he hadn't gone the whole starsailor/gunningpeopledownthang route (allegedly). Loudness/standupdrums/sugarcoatedchaos? What more do you want? - What.... you want The Oasis? You will learn.....

the hand in heart (in the north laines) used to be good, I've not been there for a long time, but they had a good jukebox and they'd had a good jukebox for a good few decades before I was there and I seem to remember the beer being rather good, it's nice and snug too

if you end up on west street with all the other stag and hen do's then hopefully you'll be so pissed you'll be desensitised to the appalling horror and it won't matter

perhaps some current brighton's can confirm if it's best to keep away from the sea front to find the best/better/more affordable pubs/bars... that's how it used to be... I hope the market diner is still open, that's a lovely end to a long and dissolute day's/night's drinking, it's behind where the hector's house pub is